Rotary engine



O. W. 'TRIPLETT.

(No Model.)

ROTARY ENGINE.

Patented Apr. 5

WITNESSES U ITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLAIBORNE W. TRIPLETT, OF LELAND, OREGON.

ROTARY EN GINE. v

SPECIFICATION forming part of Lettersfratent No. 601,916, dated April 5, 1 898.

' Application minutiae, 1827 Serial a. 629,91'1Iot. mu.)

To all whom/it may concern:

- Be it known that I, CLAIBORNE WALKER TRIPLETT, of Leland, in the county of Josephine and State of Oregon, have invented. a new and Improved Rotary Engine, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description. I a

The object of the. invention is to provide a new'and improved rotary engine which is simple and durable in construction, very effective in operation, and arranged for convenient reversing and for utilizing the motive agent to the fullest advantage, the engine also serving for transmitting motive.power for pumping water and other liquids or for compressing-air and the like.

The invention consists principally of a cylinder having an internal ofiset containing the inlet and exhaust ports, a piston arranged concentric in the said cylinder and having its peripheral'surfacefin contact with the inner face of the said offset; the piston being secured on the'rnain driving-shaft, and pistonheads fitted to slide in the said piston and adapted to be. acted on bythemotiveagent passing into the working chamber by the inlet-ports, the said working chamber extending between the surface of the piston and the inner surface of the cylinder.

'The invention also consists of certain parts and details and combinations of the same, as will be fully described hereinafter and then pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in whichsimilar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in allthe figures.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the improvement. as. arranged with .four cylinders. Fig. .2 is. a transverse. section of the same. Fig. 3 is a like view of the improvement arranged as an air-compressor. Fig. at is an end elevation of the valve-gear with parts in section. the improvement with the valve in a differefit position'from that shown in Fig. 2. .Fig.

6 is a similar view of the same with the position of the reversing-valve. changed, .and; Fig. 7 is a face view of one of the pistonheads.

The rotary engine, as illustrated in Fig. 1, is Provided with four cylinders A, A, A and Fig. 5 is a cross-section of part of A arranged one alongside the other and formed in their outer heads withbearings for the main driving-shaft B, provided at one end with a suitable pulley (not shown) to trans mit the rotary motion of the shaft to other machinery. On this shaftB, within the severalcylin'ders, are secured the pistons O, G,

0 and C fitting with their peripheral surfaces against a portion of the'inner face of an oifset A formed in each of the cylinders,

as plainly indicated in Fig. 2. Each piston is made cylindrical and is concentric with the corresponding cylinder and is'of less diameter thanlthe same, so that a workingchamber is formed between the piston and the inner surface of the corresponding cylinder.

In the pistons O C O O are fitted to slide radially in suitable grooves the piston-heads D-, D, D and D respectively, adapted to" slide in and out of the said working chambers and arranged quarter distances apart, as indicated in Fig. 2, eachpiston-head being provided on its side edges with friction-rollers'E, adapted to travel in cam-grooves E, formed on the inside of the heads of the cylinders, as i plainly shown in the drawings, the pistonheads being guided in their outward and inward movement on the friction-rollers E so as to reduce the friction of the'sliding pistonadapted to be rotated from the main drivingshaft B by means of gear-Wheels or other devices, preferably, however, gear-wheels, as

shown in Fig. 1. For this purpose the stem G of the valve G is provided on one outer end with a beveled gear-wheel G in mesh with a beveled gear-wheel G secured on the upper end of a shaft G connected at its lower end by a beveled gear-wheel G5 with a beveled gear-Wheel G on one end of the shaft B. Thus when the latter is rotated a positive rotary motion is transmitted to the valve G. The latter is formed in its peripheral surface with four ports or recesses 6, one for each cylinder, with the ports set in a quarter-circle similarly to the piston-heads D, D,

opening into a port h, the several ports for the four cylinders being connected at one outer end with a pipe H. The other ports I) are adapted to connect by ports d, formed in the reversing-valve F, with ports 2', all connected with a pipe H. The two pipes 11 and H are connected with a valve H connected with a valve I, having connection with a supply-pipe J, the said valve I being operated manually by the operator from the supplypipe J, through the valve I, into the valve F. According to the position of the valve F the motive agent passes from the valve I-I -into and through the pipe H or H and to the corresponding port 71- or 2', which can be connected by the ports f or g and port a with either of the ports 0 or d andwith the port a or I), (see Figs. 2 and 6,) so as to allow the motive agent to pass into the working chamber either on one side of the piston or on the other side thereof, according to the direction in which the engine is running.

As shown in Fig. 2, the motive agent will pass through the port a into the right-hand side of the cylinders to act on the pistonheads D D D D successively, so as to rotate the main driving-shaft B in the direction of the arrow at. When the valve F and the valve H however, are shifted to the position shown in Fig. 6, then the motive agent passes through the pipe H into the ports 2' and from the latter by the ports g, ports e, and ports d and b to the left-hand side of the cylinder to .act on the piston-heads and rotate the main shaft in the inverse direction of the arrow a. The ports h andi are also connected with eXhaust-pipesK and K, respectively,

leading to a valve-casing K containing a valve K and provided with an exhaust-pipe K for leading the steam into the open air.

Now the valve K closes the pipe K when the motive agent passes through the valve H into the pipe H, and the pipe K is then connected with the exhaust-pipe K, so that the exhaust-steam in front of the pistonheads, as shown in Fig. 2, can pass through the ports I), (Z, and 2' to the pipe K and to the outer air by the pipe K When, however, the position of the valve H is reversed, as previously explained, and the motive agent passes through the pipe H into the ports 2' and to the left-hand side of the cylinders, then the position of the valve K is such as to close the pipe K and to connect the pipe K with the exhaust-pipe K at the time the reversing-valve F is in the position shown in I Fig. 6. The exhaust-steam in front of the piston-heads then passes through the ports a, c, and h to the pipe K and to the outer air by the pipe K Now in order to obtain this uniform reversing movement of the several Valves I provide the valve F on its valvestem with a crank-arm F, and similar crankarms H and K are arranged on the valves H and K and the several crank-arms are pivotally connected with each other by a shifting lever L under the control of the operator. Into the working chambers also open ports j and k on opposite sides of the pistons, and these ports are connected with pipes N and N, respectively, leading to the valve I, previously mentioned, so that the operator on shifting the valve I can cut off the supply of motive agent from the valve II and direct the motive agent to either of the pipes N or N, so that the motive agent can pass to either side of the cylinders and act on the pistonheads with full boiler-pressure through the entire revolution of the driving-shaft B.

If the device is arranged as an air-compressor, as illustrated in Fig. 3, then the pipes N and N are dispensed with and pipes O and O are connected with the ports j and 70, one of the pipes being for the admission of air and the other for discharging the compressed air, it being, however, understood that in this case the shaft B is rotated by any suitable power, and preferably only one cylinder is used, with two piston-heads D D diametrically opposite each other, as shown in the said Fig. 3.

Now it will be seen that by the arrangement described the motive agent is utilized to the fullest advantage, and the engine can be conveniently reversed at any time by the operator simply shifting the reversing-lever L, as previously mentioned.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A rotary engine, comprising a cylinder having an internal offset provided with ports leading into the cylinder and with ports each connected with a pipe leading to a valve controlling the admission of the motive agent, a piston arranged concentric in the cylinder and having its peripheral ,face in contact with the offset at or near the middle thereof, piston-heads fitted to slide in the piston, a hollow reversing-valve mounted in the oifset and provided with oppositely-arranged pairs of ports, a revoluble valve in the reversing-valve and provided with a port in its periphery, means for operating said revoluble valve from the shaft of the piston and means for simultaneously operating the reversing-valve and the valve controlling the admission of the motive agent, substantially as described.

2. A rotary engine, comprising a cylinder havingan internal offset containing the ports a, b, h, i, a piston arranged concentric in the cylinder and having its peripheral surface in contact with the said offset, piston-heads mounted to slide in the piston, a hollow reversing-valve mounted in the offset of the.

ton-shaft, said valve being provided with a.

port e in its periphery, substantially as described.

3. A rotary engine, comprising a series of cylinders, each having an internal offset containing the ports a, b, h, i, pistons arranged in the said cylinders and having their periph eral surfaces in contact with the said ofisets, piston-heads fitted to slide in the piston and set at quarter-turns relatively one to the other, the hollow reversing-valve F having ports of cl g, andthe revoluble valve G mounted in the valve F and driven from the piston-shaft, said valve being provided with peripheral ports set in quarter circle, substantially as described.

4:. In a rotary engine, the combination with a cylinder having an internal offset provided with ports, a piston in the cylinder and-having its periphery in contact with the offset, piston-heads extending in the piston, a hollow reversing-valve, and arevoluble valve mounted in the reversing-Valve, of a branch supply-pipe connected with ports in the offset, .a valve in said supply-pipe, an exhaustpipe, a valve in the exhaust-pipe, and means for simultaneously operating the valves in the supply and exhaust pipes and the reversingvalve, substantially as described.

5. In a rotary engine, the combination with with ports,'a piston in'the cylinder and having its periphery in contact with the said offlow reversing-valve, and a revoluble valve in the reversing-valve, of the supply-pipe J, the valve I therein, pipes N N leading from the supply-pipe to ports in the oifset of the cylinder, the valve H connected with the valve I, the pipes H H leading from ports in the offset to valve H exhaust-pipes K K con nected with the portswith which the pipes H H are connected, the valve-casing K with which the pipes K K connect, the valve K in the said casing and means for simultaneously operatingthe valves F, H and K sub stantially as herein shown and described.

CLAIBORNE W. TRIPLETT.

Witnesses:

' JOHN ,GooDELL,

E. W. KUY KENDALL.

a cylinder having an internal offset provided set, piston-heads sliding in the piston, a hol-' 

